While winning a silver medal in the 100 backstroke at Districts last Saturday in a school-record time of 57.00 seconds at Cumberland Valley High School, Mandrell guaranteed herself a trip to the PIAA Meet, set for next Wednesday and Thursday, March 14-15 at Bucknell University.

“My goal was just to get that ticket (to States) and get a best time,” Mandrell said, “and along with the team record, it’s a good feeling.”

When the State at-large bids were released earlier this week, the University of Chicago-recruit learned that she had also qualified in the 50 free, in which she won an eighth-place medal in 24.33 seconds, and with the 200 medley and 400 free relays, both of which took home fourth-place District medals. The latter of those — which also included Catherine Chen, Sophie Guthridge, and Lauryn Ober — touched the wall in 3:33.74 to shatter the school record.

“I think (Friday), we were a little disappointed in our medley race,” Guthridge said, “so we put our heads together toward the end and just went for it.”

In all, that capped a weekend which saw the Lady Warriors bring home eight District medals. Chen added a fourth-place finish in the 100 free (52.64), Guthridge was sixth in both the 100 fly (58.12) and 100 backstroke (59.00), the 200 free relay (Chen, Maya Hartzler, Hannah Greenway, and Ober) placed seventh in 1:39.79.

Chen and Guthridge qualified for States in the 100 free and 100 butterfly, respectively.

In the team standings, the Warwick girls took fourth with 160 points and were the top L-L finisher, just ahead of Manheim Twp. (157 1/2).

Mandrell, seeded second in the 100 back in 57.18 seconds, accounted for 17 of those points just with her silver-medal finish in that event.

She swam neck-and-neck with Muhlenberg’s Cameron Gring on the opening 50, then brought it home in a time of 57.00 — good for an improvement of 18-hundredths of a second. Gring won the gold in 55.21 seconds.

“I know Gring’s got a 54 in her,” Mandrell said, “so (I was looking at) staying with her on that first 50 because that’s where I’m stronger. So if I stay with her on that, I just held on to whatever I was doing the second 50. I think it worked.”

Things definitely worked for Warwick on the 400 free relay, having come into the meet with the No. 4 seed in 3:34.25. Guthridge, Mandrell, and Ober had also competed with Greenway the previous day on the 200 medley relay which took fourth in 1:47.27.

In the final District Three race of their high school career, those three seniors teamed up with Chen and held off fifth-place Manheim Township (3:35.64) for the fourth spot in 3:33.74.

Their school-record time shattered the mark of 3:34.0 set by Emily Cameron, Emily Griest, Morgan Haney and Emily Wyand in 2013.

“With the medley relay, I think we were all a little disappointed going down two places and going up a second from what we did at Leagues (1:46.61),” Ober said. “So I think (Friday) kinda got us down a little bit, but Catherine started us off (Saturday) in the 100 free and we just kept the positive vibes going. And to end it like this, three of our senior years at Districts ended on a great note.”

For Ober, this will be her fourth trip to the State Championships. Despite dealing with mono the entire season, she has remained a key member of Warwick’s relay teams.

“You can’t say enough about what (Lauryn) did all year,” Daum said Saturday night. “A lesser kid would have just said, ‘I’m done. I’ve got mono and I’ll just cruise my senior year.’ Now I’m pretty sure she’s going to get to go to States.”

At Bucknell, the 400 free relay will get one more shot to drop even more time.

“We missed that record by .07 last year,” Mandrell added, “so to be able to get it this year is really awesome because it’s the last year for three of us. Catherine still has another year and she’s going to kill it.”

Chen was killing it in the 100 free Saturday night, dropping more than a second from her time. Seeded 11th in 53.86 seconds, she came from the third of four heats to earn the fourth-place medal in 52.64.

“It’s OK,” said Chen, who also took 10th in the 200 free in a season-best time of 1:56.63. “I know I can swim faster.”

The Warwick junior also won a seventh-place medal with the 200 free relay foursome of Greenway, Maya Hartzler, and Ober in 1:39.79. That marked a drop of 34-hundredths of a second from their seed time of 1:40.13.

Guthridge, meanwhile, added to her two medals with the 200 medley and 400 free relays by claiming a pair of sixth-place individual medals in the 100 fly (58.12) and 100 backstroke (59.00).

The fact that she won four medals while competing at less than 100 percent didn’t go unnoticed by Daum.

“Every time (Sophie) swims, she’s heroic because of her two shoulder surgeries,” Warwick’s coach said. “She had her best split on the medley relay, she was right there in the 100 fly with what she did at Leagues and she was hurting. She’s just guts.”

Elsewhere, Hartzler finished 17th in the 200 free (1:59.22) and 19th in the 100 fly (1:01.08), Morgan Stuhltrager took 21st in the 100 fly (1:01.34) and Greenway was 26th in the 50 freestyle (25.44).